East Timor camp children face high risk of disease

Children in families that have flocked to tent camps to escape violence in East Timor’s capital face a high risk of malnutrition and disease, health officials warned today, as they kicked off a mass measles vaccination campaign.

An estimated 30,000 children and 70,000 adults are staying in dozens of makeshift camps in and outside Dili, many of them living under tarpaulins and plastic sheeting in cramped and dirty conditions.